How to use past questions to pass your exams
A step by step way to use past questions properly: when to start, how to practise, how to mark yourself, and how to spot the topics that keep coming back.
Past questions are one of the best tools a Nigerian student has, but only if you use them to practise, not just to read the answers.
Step by step
- Collect past questions for the course from the last three to five years.
- List the topics each question covers. Topics that appear almost every year deserve the most time.
- Learn a topic first, then attempt its questions without looking at any solution.
- Do at least one full paper under exam conditions: timed, no phone, no notes.
- Mark it honestly using your notes or textbook, not a solution passed around online that may be wrong.
- Go back over every question you missed, then try a similar question a few days later.
What not to do
- Memorising answers word for word: lecturers change the wording and numbers.
- Leaving past questions until the last week.
- Ignoring topics that have not appeared yet: new ones do come up.